CoLu Week 2019
by StarryFire14
Summary: Assorted one-shots surrounding everyone's favorite surly dragon slayer and his love for one Lucy Heartfilia. Ship week hosted by Dragon'sHost, Fairy Tail owned by Hiro Mashima, the Pradesh Family owned by Desna, and all my stories betaed by GoddessxNyte2. Enjoy my first ship week!
1. Chapter 1

**Hello my dearest readers! It's the first day of CoLu week 2019 and I am… unbelievably excited to share what I've written with all of you! This is my first time participating in a ship week, and I owe it all to my wonderful Beta for informing me of it, and for encouraging me to jump in and supply some quality CoLu content. And for jumping on in the middle of a computer crisis to read and edit my stories so they were ready in time for this week.**

**I hope you all like what I've come up with! Please, review. Reviews are my lifeblood and I freak out every single time I receive one. **

**A few credit things: **

**Dragon'sHost, THANK YOU for hosting CoLu week!**

**Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail**

**Desna's Pradesh characters show up in one of my CoLu days - so just a reminder: none of the Pradesh family belongs to me. They are all intellectual property of Desna**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Day 1: Thread

Lucy started her day like any other.

Wake up, fight off the sadness at having to leave the comfort of her bed, and kick whichever dragon slayer that had ended up on her couch in the middle of the night out of her house. Today, that dragon slayer had been Laxus, surprisingly enough. He was not a standard visitor to her home, but it happened occasionally, they were kin after all. In this case, apparently the blonde had pissed Mira off badly enough that he'd been kicked out of his own place and had required somewhere to crash.

Lucy decided that, while she cared for the man, it wasn't her problem - unfortunately for him, her mornings were sacred. She'd shoved him out the door unceremoniously, still tussled from sleep and grumbling, before closing it in his face. The uncharacteristic pout he'd shot her way _almost_ earned him breakfast, but the celestial mage was able to stay strong as she clicked the deadbolt and locked the door.

Sighing, she continued her morning routine: Turn on coffee to brew. Brush teeth. Floss. Shower (bath would have been preferable, but she wanted to be at the guild early). Put on robe. Call Cancer. Decide on the day's outfit.

That last part was what had her stuck. She stood in front of her closet with a hand on her chin, considering her options.

She decided she was going to wear a skirt. But which one? She had a few new ones she wanted to try, but had decided she wasn't feeling particularly high maintenance that day, and her favorite, most comfortable black skirt kept drawing her attention, so she decided she'd wear it even though she'd had so many issues with it last time (the side had been frayed and she was constantly fighting the battle with herself _not to mess with it_). The comfort was worth the slight annoyance.

Satisfied with her choice, she paired it with a dark gray, v-neck tank top and her standard belt (keys and whip attached), put it all on and marched confidently to her kitchen, pouring the entire pot of coffee into a comically large thermos before heading to the guild to pick out a job for her and a partner.

* * *

Lucy's arrival to the guild was pretty standard. She walked in, received cheerful hellos from everyone who wasn't hung over, and made her way to the bar to chat with Mira. The only major difference was the cold, unforgiving glare she'd received from her blonde dragon kin.

She could have ignored it, but decided it was more fun to mess with him, so instead turned his way and flipped him off, a cheerful smile on her face.

"That smile is creepy as fuck, Bright Eyes. You need to stop spending time with the Ms. 'I-Am-Legion' over there."

Lucy spun around and plopped down next to the maroon-haired man, turning the exact same smile his way. His shudder was almost not noticeable. Almost.

The celestial mage's smile turned genuine, "Heya Sugar, you want to take a job with me today?"

Erik seemed suspicious of this offer. Lucy, though she was one of the few people in the guild who he could stand, was a devious little shit. And though he'd offered to go on missions with her before, she'd always told him she couldn't because Natsu would just follow and ruin it.

"...whatever I did, I'm sorry… I'd say I would never do it again, but we both know that I probably will," Erik said casually. Lucy only laughed.

"You didn't do anything, relax" The blonde assured, "I just need rent, and Natsu's destruction the last few missions has been out of hand."

"The world's most idiotic firecracker will just follow, and you know it," Cobra responded, still dubious.

Lucy's creepy smile had _nothing _on the angry glare she sported in that moment. _Nothing._

Cobra swore, if she got mad enough that people started recognizing 'Scary Lucy', he was out. He was running for the fucking hills and never looking back. He'd seen that side of the blonde exactly _one time, _and the change in her soul had been so terrifying that he still occasionally had nightmares about it.

"Oh," Lucy said menacingly, "Natsu won't be following us today. I _assure _you."

The promise of pain in her eyes was both scary and, oddly, attractive. To Erik, anyway.

A whispered thought from the blonde's soul had him intrigued, so despite his better judgement, he found himself agreeing.

"Alright, Tink, lead the way," he said, downing the last of his bleach.

* * *

The first time she noticed it, was on the way to the train station.

She'd been walking along without a care in the world, until she noticed… something touching her leg... Just the softest of brushes on her skin.

Her author's mind supplied her with incredibly detailed images of spiders, fire ants, centipedes, and various other forms of creepy-crawlies. Enough so that, instead of looking at the source of the problem, she promptly _freaked the fuck out_.

It was a good thing Cobra could hear what was happening in her soul, otherwise he would have written her off as bat-shit insane (well, more so than normal) and dragged her straight to the mental institution. Directly there, without passing 'go' or collecting two hundred jewel.

As it was, he just fixed his single-eyed stare at her, before deciding that _laughing his ass off _was the best response. Lucy would have kicked him for it if she wasn't scrambling around, smacking at her leg, dancing around in the middle of the street trying to dislodge whatever nightmare-inducing bug that had decided she was it's next meal.

Taking pity on her, Cobra gripped both of her shoulders in a move that forced her to stand still. She could still _feel _it, and so let out a whimper at having been restrained, looking to her companion with terrified eyes. Said companion leaned down, reaching for the edge of her skirt, and pinched something between his fingers. As he pulled his hand back up, Lucy felt whatever the fuck it was against her skin being lifted away, and clenched her eyes shut tightly in fear.

"Tink"

Lucy shook her head. No fucking way was she opening her eyes to look in the face of her worst nightmare, unidentified bug no. 1.

"Bright Eyes"

"...no." it came out as a whisper.

Erik sighed, then physically gripped her face and pried her left eye open, "Look."

Having no choice in the matter, she did. And found herself focusing on a tiny, miniscule thread pinched between his tan fingers. She followed the dark string down from his hand, to find that it was a part of the frayed part of her skirt, that had likely gotten caught on something and was unraveling a small section of fabric.

"...Oh. Uh… Thanks?"

Lucy called Cancer to cut the stray strand, and decided she would be fine without changing because it was just a simple day mission, and possibly overnight if all went well. Besides, she had plans for the day that didn't include any delays.

* * *

The second time it happened, Lucy's response was only marginally less extreme.

She felt that oh-so-creepy tickling sensation on her thigh just as they'd exited the train at Onibus station, and she still flipped out.

The only improvement in her reaction this time, was the reduced amount of time she spent freaking out before finding the end of the thread herself and calling out Cancer in a huff. The spirit gladly assisted her in cutting the strand short while both he and Lucy studiously ignored the cackling poison slayer standing just off to the side.

When she sent her spirit home, she crossed her arms and averted her gaze, and stomped away from Cobra in a huff.

If he wanted her plans for the evening to work out in his favor, he would do well to stop laughing at her.

Erik heard her soul's declaration loud and clear, and muffled his laughter as he followed behind her to meet with the client.

* * *

Lucy should have known it would happen again. The job request was to deal with a fledgeling group of young mages that had been stealing small, inconsequential items for the last month or so. The client was the local chamber of commerce, a group of local business owners who found themselves annoyed with the petty criminals enough to hire guild mages.

It was in the meeting with them that Lucy felt that horrible sensation again.

She blanched, but as they were in a professional setting, and Lucy still had a deeply-set learned behavior for such a setting, she _couldn't do anything about it._

Erik wanted to laugh his ass of, hearing her mind going a hundred miles an hour looking for any kind of solution to her problem while at the same time shooting impressive insults at the slow-talking businessmen across the room from where they stood. Instead, he decided to show her some mercy and help her out.

He reached behind her to that pesky spot on her skirt that kept unravelling and melted the spot just below the line of her skirt so the thread didn't irritate her further.

Lucy sighed in relief, thankful to Erik for this thoughtfulness and uncharacteristic grace in dealing with the problem.

That was until he decided to slap her ass, in the middle of a meeting with clients. When she slowly turned her tomato-red face to focus on him, he gave her an innocent look and explained himself. Loudly.

"What? It would have looked weird as hell if I just randomly grabbed in the general direction of your, admittedly, pretty fucking perfect ass and _didn't _find something do to with it."

* * *

By the time it happened, yet again, Lucy had become immune to the feeling on her leg. When she felt that tell-tale tingle, they were in the middle of a very stern lecture with the young mages they were sent for - or Lucy was, anyway. Cobra was sulking, as his many attempts to convince the celestial mage that the teens needed a _physical_ lesson, in the name of a well-rounded education, had been fruitless.

Lucy had decided just to ignore it, in favor of finishing up her job, when the sensation stopped being one of a light tickle on her thigh, and became one of a…. Tugging. On her skirt.

She looked over to find that Erik, as some sick version of payback for having been out-argued, had been pulling the thread. He'd wrapped it around and around his hand, and seeing it, Lucy blanched.

If he had that much material around his hand, there couldn't possibly be all that much still on… her… skirt….

Lucy quickly covered herself, and the tiny, miniscule bit of fabric that still covered her most private parts, with her hands and looked in front of her to see three _very _red-faced teenagers staring at where her hands met in front of her uncovered body.

"PERVERTS!" she yelled, and immediately Lucy kicked each one into orbit.

Erik sniggered, satisfied that in a roundabout way, he'd gotten what he wanted in regards to the lesson plan.

The poison slayer heard a frustrated grumble echo through his girlfriend's soul, one that made him quickly lose all sense of victory as he stared at her in horror. She couldn't possibly be serious.

"What… No, Bright Eyes, fuck… wait! I'm sorry!"

She glared at him and pulled his signature white coat from his shoulders while he was too stunned to fight back. Lucy pulled it on over what was left of her own clothing and closed it over her torso, effectively hiding in state of undress under the overly-large garment. Peeking out from the fabric, she leveled a glare at her boyfriend.

"Too late, Erik. I warned you about laughing earlier! I made myself pretty fucking clear!"

"But… the whole plan was for me to finally, fucking _finally,_ get you naked, somewhere that god-awful horde of idiots you call your team wouldn't barge in on us! I just…ya know, got started a little early, that's all!" he protested vehemently.

"Plans change," she informed him, stalking back to the train station, ignoring his disappointed grumbling as he followed close behind her.

Lucy had to stifle a giggle.

In his frustration, he didn't seem to be paying attention to her soul at all. If he _had_ been paying any small bit of attention, he would have heard her thinking through all the different, wonderful, inappropriate ways her plans had changed once she'd seen him in that form-fitting thermal shirt as she'd forcibly removed his jacket.


	2. Chapter 2

**Dear Readers,**

**This next one is short, but I love it anyway. Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail, I just make up ridiculous situations within his wonderful world. I occasionally throw a Pradesh in here or there, and that whole family is the property of Desna. **

**A huge thank you to my beta, GoddessxNyte, for getting me through this ship week with my sanity (mostly) intact.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Day 2: Legal

"No."

"What do you mean, no?"

"Is it really hard to figure out? I mean: _no_. You _cannot_, under any circumstances, poison Jellal."

Erik scowled at her, "And why the fuck wouldn't I? The tower was one thing, but that stupid fucking pile of self-loathing has gone way too fucking far this time."

Doing her very best not to throw the very expensive communication lacrima across the room, Lucy rubbed her temples to ease her growing headache. One she'd not so fondly named 'Erik'.

"There are _so many reasons. _All of which you are well aware of."

"I can't think of any single reason important enough to stop me from committing murder right now," Erik countered.

"Erza will bring her hammer back out and probably kill you."

"She'd never catch me. I know where that cock blocking she-hulk is _at all times, _I have since she punted me into a fucking mountain. Try again."

Lucy plopped down on her bed, "He's your guildmaster."

Erik's angry expression transformed into a self-satisfied smirk, "You and I both know how very little that means to me, Tink."

Lucy let the com fall beside her, so Erik's view was of the ceiling when she answered in an exhausted tone, "He didn't even do anything wrong."

"What? Oh yes he fucking did! Having a dirty dream about _my wife_ in a threesome is the worst thing that blueberry, tramp stamped bastard has ever done, and that is _saying something_!"

Lucy rolled her eyes and brought the com back up to look at him, "It was in a threesome with _his own _wife, who he is entirely dedicated to, and it was a fucking _dream. _It's not like he could control it."

"I could help him control it, Bright Eyes, that's what I'm trying to fucking tell you," he explained, an excited gleam in his eye.

"Erik, if you tracked down and 'helped control'", she used single-handed air quotes on that last phrase, "every man - or woman - who has ever fantasized about me, you'd be poisoning random people every day for the rest of your life."

Erik sighed, seemingly in defeat, "You're right."

Lucy was about to do a victory dance when he continued, "You _are _hot as fuck, Bright Eyes," he confirmed, "So I should probably get started soon."

"Oh you're fucking impossible. You can't _do_ that!"

"And why the hell not?"

"It's illegal," she slowed her speech down as if she were trying to explain a simple concept to Natsu, "Not. Legal. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Erik just leveled his single-eyed stare at her in a deadpan.

Seeing this, Lucy sighed in defeat. They both knew that it really, really didn't mean a damn thing to the dragon slayer. Less than nothing.

"Just… don't actually kill him, okay? Non-lethal poisons only, promise me."

"Permanently disable? Okay, I can live with that."

"_NO!_"


	3. Chapter 3

**Dear Readers,**

**Day 3! This is one of my favorites of my CoLu stories, so I hope you like it! Big thanks to my Beta for being awesome (GoddessxNyte2)!**

**Reminder, Fairy Tail does not belong to me (Mashima), neither do the Pradesh characters (Desna).**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Day 3: Foamy

"Hey, Stella, do you know where I could find some foam?"

Lucy glared at the shadowquip mage that had so rudely interrupted her peaceful, glorious, long-awaited novel writing time by scaring the shit out of her. She'd told him a million times to use the door, but apparently Mr. I-travel-the-voids was too good for doors.

"Vander, you have exactly ten seconds to get out of my apartment before I do something drastic."

She loved Vander, she really did. He was like the mischievous little brother she never wanted, but got anyway.

Ever since she'd taken up a commission with the Knights here in Bosco, she'd been stupidly busy. Mission after mission, running security for random ambassadors, or rescuing Boscan nationals from captivity in random unfriendly countries, or gathering intelligence about potential threats to Bosco. Ever since Joya came out and decided that war was a grand old time, and initiated a conflict with almost every major country in Ishgar, things had been non-stop action. Bosco was allied with many countries, after all, and she and Cristoff belonged to the unit was most frequently deployed to get shit done. At least she had some familiar company during the long and frequently tedious missions, and his wonderful shifting ability had allowed her to guilt him into bringing her home frequently to visit with her surly mate.

Cobra, he had found her newfound lack of free time extremely hard to deal with, and so every moment she spent in-country and off-mission was spent at home, with him. Normally in some kind of compromising position. Today? It had taken her two hours and _several, _rigorous rounds in the sack (and on the kitchen table, and on the coffee table - she was beginning to feel like they had developed a mutual table kink) to convince him to get out of the house for the evening, just so she could relax and write.

And here Vander was, right in the middle of the apartment she'd worked so hard to empty, asking the world's most random question.

Vander pouted at her, "Lucy, it's really important-"

"What," she hissed, cutting him off, "could possibly be _really important_ about foam?"

"...it's a secret."

Lucy rolled her eyes, "Tell you what," Vander's pout turned into a victorious smile, "You keep Erik occupied for no less than four hours tonight, and I will personally see to it that you have more foam than you know what to do with."

Van shot her a cocky smile, "Oh, I'll keep him busy-"

"Do _not _seduce my mate. Or take him to a strip club. Entertain him via some kind of _wholesome _means for four hours, or the deal is off."

The shadowquip's red eyes lost all signs of their former excitement, "Boo… that's so boring, but fine," he said, disappearing into the voids.

…

Four hours later, a very ill looking Erik came stumbling into the apartment, his weight supported by a smug-looking shadowquip. He looked ready to kill, but also looked very much incapable of doing so at the moment. Which likely only pissed him off more.

The quick nod he gave her confirmed Lucy's thoughts to be correct.

"What did you do?!" she demanded, rushing to Cobra's empty side.

"You're the one who said wholesome," Vander defended, "Wholesome isn't really my forte, so I did the only thing I could think of."

"Which was…?" Lucy asked, reaching out to take Erik's weight and lead him to the bed.

She should have known not to ask.

"Oh, we went to that new theme park in Rosegarden, Fiore."

"You _what?"_

…

"Tink, what the hell is this stuff?" Erik inquired, staring incredulously at the scene before him.

"Oh, I'm just doing what I told Van I would do when he took you out the other day. Remember, I told him I'd get him more foam than he knew what to do with!" Lucy reminded him happily.

Erik bent down to stare at the white bubbly liquid that was leaking out from the crack under Vander's front door. He poked at it and narrowed his eyes, still unsure of what it was, and looked up at his mate in surprise.

He sniffed the air around him to confirm his suspicions, "Is this… laundry soap? Is this why our grocery bill was so fucking high last week?"

Lucy giggled, "Oh yeah. I've been overloading Van's washer with soap and running it for hours. There's not a single spot in there that isn't flooded…"

Erik just looked at her incredulously, "Tink, that's not foam, you know that, right?"

Lucy nodded enthusiastically, "No, but its… foamy. Foam-like. Foam-esque. Foam-adjacent," she nearly collapsed into giggles, gripping Erik's arm.

Chuckling along with her, Erik pulled the celestial mage in for a kiss.

"I love you and you're fucking crazy ass brain, you know that?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Dear Readers,**

**Day 4 - can't believe we are halfway through the week already. I have to say… I'm more excited about day 5 than anything, but I'm proud of all my submissions this week and I hope you like them.**

**FYI - Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail, Desna owns the Pradesh and Boscan universe, and my beta is GoddessxNyte2, and she is awesome.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Day 4: Sweater

It was Christmas in Fiore, and for the first time Lucy was going to spend it with her boyfriend of five years. Every year before that, he'd been a wanted man, and he and the rest of his guild had continued hunting dark guilds throughout the holidays like everything was business as usual.

He'd even refused to allow her to send him a gift for the holiday, despite that he always found a way to send her one - much to the blonde's chagrin. She'd have ignored his wishes and sent him one regardless, because fuck him and his double standards, but she never knew where he was going to be, so it was fairly impossible.

This year, though, would be different. Erik and the rest of his guild had been officially pardoned, and for the first time since she was a kid with two living parents, she was going to spend a quiet holiday with those she considered close family: Erik, and her spirits.

Erik and Lucy had gotten each other gifts, but since Lucy had sixteen Spirits, they'd decided to just do a secret santa gift exchange instead of having everyone get everyone else a gift. Lucy had gotten Pyxis in the draw, and was unbelievably excited to see his reaction when she gave him a small, golden compass engraved with the Fairy Tail symbol. He'd always wanted to get a guild stamp, but every time she'd summoned him at the guild, he'd gotten too shy to accept the mark from Gramps and hid behind her legs. She figured this was a nice compromise for the cute little spirit.

She was also unbelievably excited for Erik to open his gifts from her. She'd gotten him five things, to make up for lost time, and if he threw a fit about it she was probably going to castrate him.

Unable to contain herself any longer, Lucy decided to wake up her favorite grouchy dragon slayer and begin the festivities. She rolled over and kissed Erik on his bare, scarred chest.

He made no move to wake, so she did it again. No response.

Smirking, she decided to give him his first present before anything else.

"Erik…" she called softly, and kissed up his neck. He did respond this time, but only to groan and mumble about more sleep.

Giggling, Lucy straddled his lap under the covers. Immediately, she saw (and felt) him becoming more excited as his hands moved to grip her hips and he cracked open one violet eye.

Leaning down, she put her lips right next to his ear and spoke in her most sultry voice, "Good morning, sugarplum…"

He groaned, "Bright Eyes, you do this to me first thing in the fucking morning, then you're going to have to put out. I'm sorry, but it's a requirement," he told her in his husky morning voice, grinding his hips into her own and tightening his grip.

"Kind of the point, my dearest dragon," Lucy giggled softly as she leaned forward and snatched something off the bedpost. She pulled her shirt off with little fuss, and proceeded to pull a santa hat onto her tousled blonde locks, "Now, why don't you open your first present, hmmm?"

"Fuck, that's hot," Erik mumbled to himself, before flipping their positions and covering her lips with his own.

* * *

A few hours later, when the sun had finally risen over Magnolia, the two mages made their way into the kitchen in their pajamas. Erik, in the same one's he'd worn to bed except he'd thrown on a ratty T-shirt, as they expected her spirits to all show up at any moment and he still didn't like the idea of anyone but Lucy seeing his scars. Lucy had been forced to pick out a whole new pajama set, as Erik had taken the 'open your present' thing a little _too _seriously, and had literally ripped her fuzzy pants to shreds.

"I still can't believe that Stache Face agreed to open up everyone's gates so they could enjoy the holiday with us," Lucy mused as she got to work on breakfast and Erik focused on what was important: coffee.

"I don't know why you're surprised, Tink. You've literally got every fucking being in the universe wrapped around your sadistic little finger."

Lucy decided not to dignify the comment with a response, but luckily she didn't have to. Loke popped up half a second later, dressed in a ridiculous pink pajama outfit, to defend her.

"He's got a point, Princess," Loke nodded seriously.

"What the hell? I do _not._ And I'm _not _sadistic, you perverted lion!" she almost kicked him, but stopped herself at the last second, realizing that it might further their argument.

Hm. Maybe they had a point.

The next to arrive was Aries, and she immediately apologized for arriving without being summoned, despite the fact that she was _invited, _and also despite the fact that Stache Face had practically shoved her through her gate after he opened it, and ordered her not to return until she'd participated in the gift exchange.

Lucy laughed, piling up more pancakes, and greeted the spirit with a happy, "Merry Christmas!"

Next was Saggitarius, and he didn't great them at all, opting instead to stand near Erik and copy his exhausted stare-down with the coffee pot as if adding his eyes would make it finish the pot faster.

Lucy wasn't exactly a morning person, typically, so she'd never had the occasion to see her spirits this early in the morning (except Capricorn, who occasionally popped in of his own accord to interrupt her when she slept in, claiming she needed to adopt a more regular sleep schedule). Saggitarius' reaction was a little hilarious to her.

Next to arrive was Scorpio, with Aquarius tucked under his arm, who's key had been reacquired two years ago. She greeted with some sort of half-hearted scathing remark that Erik had grumbled at her for, and Scorpio just directed them to sit near the Christmas tree.

Taurus and Virgo arrived next, and together, carrying various side dishes for what was turning into a very large breakfast.

Capricorn arrived with Plue sitting primly (but trembling) on his shoulder, followed shortly after by Cancer, who held Gemi in one arm and Mini in the other, instead of his customary scissors, "Smells good, baby!", he shouted over the quiet conversations in the kitchen.

Lyra showed up a few minutes later, singing to herself and clutching Caelum to herself as if the metallic spirit was a teddy bear. She didn't say anything to anyone, but continued singing lightly to herself with the universe's brightest smile as she danced around the apartment.

It was at this point that Erik realized what kind of batshit crazy nonsense he'd gotten himself into. He poured Saggitarius a cup of the newly finished coffee, then one for himself, and they both stood off to the corner and clinked glasses as they watched the rest of the craziness around them.

Erik found it strange that the most normal-seeming spirit in Lucy's family walked around day in and day out in a horse suit.

Figuring it was better for his sanity, he decided not to question it.

Pyxis, Horologium, and Crux all arrived together. Crux sleeping inside Horologium while Pyxis had the clock spirit by the hand and was trying to turn him so his minute hands pointed due north, while all the time looking incredibly confused as to why the little hands weren't adjusting to the direction they were facing.

It wasn't a bright spirit, honestly, and was very child-like, but Erik still couldn't help but wonder how the little guy had gone several millennia without figuring out the difference between a compass (which was what he was) and a clock.

Again, Erik just sighed and didn't question it.

Lucy clapped her hands together happily, "Alright, let's eat!"

* * *

They only had a few hours of free open-gate time for the celestial spirits, so they moved right into gifts immediately after breakfast was completed. Virgo had volunteered to clean up, and before Lucy could protest, it was done. Literally, completely clean.

Erik had thought Virgo was some kind of earth magic user, but if cleaning was a magic type, the masochistic maid would be the leading authority on its capabilities, he was sure.

They all settled down, somewhat uncomfortably, since everyone was squished into a tiny one-bedroom apartment, and began passing out presents.

Lucy opened hers from Erik first, and found herself gasping at the beautiful key ring inside. It was white-gold and instead of a plain ring, it was a delicate piece of metal work shaped into several different types of beautiful poisonous flowers.

The celestial mage had launched herself at her boyfriend and spent the rest of the present-opening session on his lap.

She had insisted that he open the next two presents, since he had more than everyone else because of all his missed Christmas presents.

He was very much not used to receiving gifts, and kind of lit up at having been given things he liked. The first gift he'd opened was the ownership ticket to a large plot of soil in the Magnolia Greenhouse that Lucy had bought him six months ago and had been planting various types of poison in since. He had squeezed her into a hug so hard that she'd had to slap at his arms to let go so she could breathe. The second gift had been a brand new, slightly higher quality white coat that he'd immediately draped over her shoulders while he kissed her temple in thanks.

They continued the gift exchange, everyone having succeeded in getting thoughtful gifts for their assigned person/spirit.

Capricorn got what Lucy assumed was a gag gift, as it was a magically spelled book that automatically catalogued calories eaten versus calories burned, but the goat had lit up like the Christmas tree on her left and had thanked Cancer for it profusely.

Cancer received several bottles of hair care product from a stoic Virgo.

Virgo had been delighted when she received a few medieval torture devices from Erik, who seemed very proud of himself for whatever evil thoughts he caught running through the spirits' mind.

Pyxis had practically passed out from excitement when he'd opened the small box containing his gift from Lucy, and Lucy had sobbed out loud when Aquarius had provided her with one of her mother's old journals and a blank journal of the same style, so Lucy could write her own.

Aquarius had received a beautiful crown of blue and green crystals that was similar in style to the headpiece she currently wore, from an overly excited and violently trembling Plue, who in turn got a massive basket of assorted Lollipops from a grinning Scorpio.

Scorpio got an assortment of ancient scarabs framed in a shadowbox from Loke.

Loke received, much to Lucy's annoyance, a very ornate looking version of his 'little black book', essentially his list of girlfriends. Saggitarius had gotten the pages enchanted so that it would update to display the woman's current opinion of Loke (which he could use to determine which of his girlfriends had found out about other women).

Caelum gave Saggitarius a series of intricately carved decorative arrows that the horse-man spirit clutched to his person tightly, as if someone would take them from him.

The chisel spirit received a book of enchantments from Crux that, if Lucy agreed to cast them, would change the color of the little guy's blast attacks. The metal ball-like spirit showed excitement in the only way that was possible, it trembled violently in a decent impression of Plue, and Lucy laughed right along with it (him?).

Crux received a large bottle of silver polish (presumably for use on his own body?) from Lyra, who received an original, hand-written score from an ancient composer from, surprisingly, Pyxis.

Taurus gave Gemi and Mini a whole box full of random supplies for various pranks they could pull in the celestial realm. Or at least, Lucy hoped it would be used in the celestial realm, because Fairy Tail responded to pranks by starting full out, vindictive wars. She would know.

Gemi and Mini gave Aries an assortment of dyes for her wool that the ram spirit had been tremendously excited about.

Capricorn gave Taurus, much to Lucy's frustration, a subscription to Sorcerer Weekly.

Lastly, Aries had put her heart and soul into a beautiful, hand-crafted… sweater, for Erik. It was actually of an amazing quality, and the pink-haired ram had informed him as he opened it that Loke had enchanted it with the warmth of Regulus to keep the easily-chilled dragon slayer comfortable even in the coldest of climates.

Lucy had tensed up as the moments passed by with hardly a reaction from the poison slayer, and Aries had gone from hopefully apologetic to genuinely embarrassed at having presented a maroon, homemade sweater with a monogrammed "E" smack in the middle of it, to the most well known grouch in all of Earthland.

The celestial mage nearly ripped the man's other eye from his head at how utterly rude he was being, but when he looked up at the red-faced ram spirit, he wasn't… grouchy.

He was touched. He had never received anything so thoughtful from another person before (at least, one he _wasn't _sleeping with) and once he'd gotten over his shock, he thanked her profusely for the gift as he pulled it on over his T-Shirt and practically _snuggled _into its warmth.

Lucy felt immense gratitude to the slayer for his reaction, as Aries smiled with more confidence than she had ever displayed previously, saying a soft, "I-I am glad you like it, Master Erik…" and for the first time in the history of Lucy's contract with her, omitted the 'I'm sorry'.

Before Lucy could burst into sobs for how well everything went between her human family and her spirit family, the Spirit King crashed the party, stopping time (because he's a show off) and speaking to them all through Lucy's now-open bedroom window.

"I believe it is time, old friend, that your contracted spirits returned home to show off their gifts to the rest of us," he told her with a smile. Or she thought it was a smile, she couldn't see all of his massive face through the limited field of view provided by her window.

"Merry Christmas, Stache Face!" she shouted, running to the window to greet him. She held out a hand for a high-five, and he obliged her by holding out a single finger for her to slap.

"Spirits don't typically celebrate such things, but I shall wish you a fine holiday, old friend," he responded in his booming voice.

She shot him a bright smile, "I'll send the others back now. Thank you so much for this, though."

"Of course, old friend," he smiled at her and disappeared as time restarted.

Lucy spent the next ten minutes hugging each of her spirits warmly as they all went home, even Aquarius, while Erik awkwardly shook hands with the ones that had hands, and shared the world's weirdest half-hug with Aries.

* * *

An hour later found Lucy and Erik sitting cuddled by Lucy's fireplace, hot chocolate in hand while they sat in comfortable silence.

"Erik?"

"Hm? Whatcha need, Tink?" he asked, pulling himself out of his thoughts of contentment.

Lucy sighed happily, "I love you."

He smiled, "I've known that for years, Bright Eyes. You can omit information, but your soul can't," he informed her, amused.

"Yeah, yeah," she said smacking him in the chest as she cuddled closer and put her mug on the side table.

"I love you too, Lucy," he informed her quietly.

"I know," she said, a bright smile taking over her features and the most beautiful happy melody chiming in her soul.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, like she suddenly remembered something, "I had two more gifts for you," she explained as she sat up and turned in her seat to face him.

Erik looked around as if trying to find another box or two lying randomly in the apartment.

Finding nothing, he looked at her curiously.

"I'm pregnant!"

A moment of silence.

And another.

"Y-you… really mean it?! Seriously?"

"Yes!"

Erik hugged her fiercely, "I'm going to be a dad…?"

"Yes, but you're squishing me…" she mumbled.

"Oh, shit, sorry. Oh, fuck. Am I allowed to say shit?"

Lucy just giggled.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm just so happy, Bright Eyes, holy fu-" he cut off in the middle of his exclamation, "Wait… you said you had two more presents?" he questioned.

"Oh, yeah! Twins!"

Erik would deny it forever, and he swore Lucy to secrecy, but in that moment, Erik "Cobra" Vivas _passed the fuck out._


	5. Chapter 5

**Dear Readers,**

**I'm so excited to share this next one. It's an AU, short but snarky, and I love it. :) **

**I hope you do, too. Let me know in the comments/reviews - I'm starting to think this story is invisible… (to my reviewers from days 1-4: THANK YOU! I loved your comments, I always do, they make me feel like I'm doing a good job!)**

**Another thank you to Dragon'sHost for this ship week. I have really enjoyed writing for it and reading everyone else's stories. **

**REMINDERS: I don't own anything. At all. Desna owns the Pradesh Family (whenever they show up, I never know… they just weasel their way into my stories at random), Hiro Mashima owns the rest. **

**To my lovely beta, GoddessxNyte2. You're my hero. And the hero of my stories, because without you my dark and twisty would take control - and nobody needs that. **

**To everyone else…**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Day 5: Windy

"Watch where you're going, lady!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Lucy Heartfilia called to the man she'd all but knocked on his ass as she chased after her best friend's scarf, but didn't stop.

Her idiot friend refused to take it off, despite the fact that it was windy as fuck today. So, now here she was, chasing down a goddamn scarf in the middle of the summer, as a veritable downpour threatened overhead.

She'd just let it go, and write it off as Natsu's unfailing stupidity, but she knew he would be devastated to lose the last thing his late father ever bought for him. She couldn't let it happen, as much as she wished she could.

Somehow, she doubted the poor victims of her clumsy running cared about the sob story as much as she did, though, so she vowed to kick the crap out of him when as she returned the (freshly washed, because she so rarely got her hands on it to clean it) garment. For their sake.

As retribution for their suffering.

Finally, she was within reaching distance of the odd white fabric, and not caring for anything other than the fabric in that moment, she leapt.

While she did manage to snag the frayed end of the disgusting piece of cloth, she had somehow managed to overlook the fact that there was a human standing directly underneath. A human that was now toppling right on over, dragging her with him.

"Fuck, what the hell?" she heard, but it was muffled. Based on the way she felt Mr. Stranger's mouth move, it was muffled… in her tits.

"Shit…" she said sheepishly, sitting up by bracing her hands on Mr. Stranger's chest, "I'm, uh… I'm sorry about that," she apologized softly, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly in a move she'd picked up from the very same idiot best friend that had gotten her into this mess.

"Sorry's not gonna cut it, dumbass, you're just lucky I'm not seriously fucking injured here," he spat back at her from the ground.

Finally taking a second to pay attention to her victim now that she'd been verbally accosted, she looked down at him in shock. What the fuck was that guy's problem?

She took in the image of a tanned, beautifully sculpted face with a sexy as fuck scar over one unopened eye before she ignored her base, female instincts to drag him to the nearest bed, and instead decided he deserved to be taken down a few pegs for the way he spoke to her. Good looks be damned.

"Fuck you, cyclops, I didn't do it on purpose so chill the hell out," she glared at him from above him, taking more smug satisfaction than she should have at the fact that her glare had to be twice as effective as his, since she had both eyes.

"What the fuck ever, princess. Want to climb your clumsy ass off of me now?"

Lucy fought the blush that tried to present itself to the outside world at having been caught on top of someone who hadn't invited her there. She intensified her glare for a moment, before standing up as gracefully as she could.

Which, as it turned out, was not very, as she'd apparently taken the brunt of her fall with her left knee, "Shit!" she exclaimed as her weight shifted fully to that leg. She'd managed to successfully remove herself from Mr. Stranger's person, but did not, in fact, manage to get off the ground.

Her sexy victim, instead of picking himself up off the ground, turned over on his side and propped his head up with his arm as he studied her.

"Karma's a bitch, am I right?"

"Oh, fuck off. I said I was sorry, take it or leave it. I've got my own problems to deal with, if you haven't noticed."

He studied her for a few moments longer, "Erik," he offered nonchalantly.

Lucy was too busy checking her knee for damage to respond appropriately, so she just cocked an eyebrow as she examined the rapidly-swelling joint.

"My name, genius. You sure you even got accepted into college? Just visiting a smarter friend, are ya?"

Lucy wanted to be offended by the clear attempt at an insult, but the thought that Natsu was smarter than her was so exceptionally ludicrous that she couldn't help but laugh.

"Uh, no… Not quite, sorry," she informed him between her slightly pained chuckles, "I'm Lucy, by the way. Nice to meet you, Erik."

The sudden shift in conversation surprised Erik a little, but now that he didn't feel like making her cry for being a moron, he found her rather intriguing. Not many people would have the balls to talk back to him, after all. Metaphorical balls, in this case, as he was pretty sure she didn't have any literal ones.

"This has been great and all, but I clearly am keeping you from something. You can go," Lucy dismissed him with half a glance in his direction.

Erik stood up, but didn't make a move to leave, "You gonna make it to wherever you're going like that?" he asked her, gesturing toward her clearly injured leg.

"Just go, I'll be fine," she bit out, giving him a glare that clearly said she would punch him in the throat if he tried to help her one more time.

So he didn't offer.

But he didn't move either. It was almost as if he were waiting for something...

About ten minutes into their staring contest, the first drops hit the top of Lucy's head. Erik smirked.

As the rain started falling harder, he took a small step closer, "So. Want to go grab a coffee now?"

Lucy crossed her arms over her chest, holding on to Natsu's scarf tightly so as to not lose it again, and realized she didn't have much choice. Unless she wanted to sit in the rain for the foreseeable future.

She considered that possibility for far longer than she probably should have, but eventually swallowed her pride and sighed, "Fine, fine. Help me up?"

He did not help her up. Instead, he knelt down and helped her maneuver so she was able to climb on his back, and he carried her that way all the way to the university cafe, and then later to the hospital, because only Lucy Heartfilia would get seriously injured tackling _someone else _to the ground.

Fifty years later, when her grandchildren asked how she'd met their grandfather, she'd get a far away look on her face, and tell them, "I was best friends with an idiot, and it was windy…"


	6. Chapter 6

**Dear Readers, **

**This is my favorite work for this ship week. I'm not going to say anything else about it, but I really, really hope you like it.**

**Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail, Desna owns the Pradesh Characters. My beta is better than your beta (probably. I've never met your beta, though), so give her love: GoddessxNyte2.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Day 6: Grain

They'd been searching for _years, _after this ancient artifact that, if the rumors were to be believed, held the secrets of the universe itself. Secrets to the one magic. Secrets of the origins of every magical being that had ever graced the soil of Earthland. History of the world so old that even the celestial spirits had forgotten it.

And _finally_, they were here, hundreds of feet underground, beneath the ancient remains of a ruined city in a part of the world that had long since been abandoned, staring at the one thing that would end their hundred-year quest and allow them to return home victorious, for the first time in thirteen years.

And it was just barely larger than a grain of rice. And shone like it had been chipped off the edge of the sun, and placed here to brighten the world underneath the world.

It was a moment they would never forget, a moment the _world_ would never forget. Every history book made from this point until the end of time itself would describe this very moment in vivid detail, down to the last bead of hard-earned sweat that fell from the muscled arm of a legendary mage to land on the dirty, centuries-old carved stone that served as the floor.

Hesitantly, Lucy Heartfilia stepped forward, her battle-hardened features lighting up with a hope she thought she'd lost as she lifted a guildmarked hand toward the blinding light to the Stone of Lost Truth. Inches away now, she hesitated only a moment, the world-renowned Daughter of the Expansive Night sending one last, desperate plea to the Celestial Spirit King that she be deemed worthy to receive a knowledge that would destroy her otherwise. With one last, cautious step, she closed her calloused hand over the tiny but world-changing orb.

Instantly, the chamber darkened, and was lit only by the briefest flash of the celestial mage's golden eyes as she was granted the knowledge she had come so far to obtain.

Minutes passed in absolute silence, before a voice spoke out in the darkness. Hesitant. Frightened, almost as if he were sure he had lost the most precious thing in his world, "...Bright Eyes?"

"WHO DARES DISTURB THE MAIDEN OF TRUTH?!"

Erik Hearfilia, the steadfast dragon slayer husband and soul-bonded mate to the Worthy One of the Prophecy of Truth, fell to his knees in soul-crushing despair, "No… no… This can't be happening… _Lucy…"_

The light once again lit the chamber, and a soft giggle was heard from the other side of the large, underground cathedral.

Erik snapped his attention to the source of the sound, a small hope in his singular violet eye, and upon catching the image of his one true love…

He scowled, "You fucking sneaky bitch, what the hell? You trying to give me a heart attack?"

Lucy laughed harder, "I'm s-s-sorry," she managed to get out between her belly bursting fits of laughter, "I… couldn't help myself…"

He stood up and crossed the large room, pulling her into a crushing hug, "Fuck you, Tink. I'm not as young as I used to be, you know. I could've died, and then were would you be?"

"Right here, dragging your sorry ass corpse back to the guild so I could tell everyone how you dropped dead at the literal last fucking second for no reason at all," she giggled out, hugging him back tightly for a moment, "and I can tell them that you called me _Lucy_ before you expired from this cruel, cruel world," she poked his chest and smirked victoriously.

As she pulled away and hopped down the stairs and back to the exit, he followed behind her, arms crossed.

"You're more evil than even I am, sometimes, you know that? And I can't believe you were so determined to win a bet we made ten fucking years ago that you'd use a literal earthland-changing moment to trick me into using your real name."

Walking backwards so she could face him, she rolled her eyes, "Coming from the man that hasn't used his wife's real name in ten fucking years because of a drunken bet? How hypocritical."

Erik rolled his eye right back as he caught up to her, "Whatever. So what's the verdict?"

Lucy tossed the tiny little grain-sized marble at her husband's face. He caught it and fumbled around with it for a moment thinking it would murder him, before narrowing his eye at her.

She only laughed, "I told you thirteen years ago that this was pointless. The one magic is love. Like I said."

Lucy was exuding so much satisfaction that Erik was almost certain he could bottle it and sell it to the highest bidder.

"Goddamn it! Why are you always right? It's the most frustrating thing in the world."

She stopped suddenly and cupped his scarred cheek with her rough-but-warm hand, looking deep into his eyes with a sincere smile, "I know," then she pulled back and skipped away.


	7. Chapter 7

**Dear Readers,**

**I know what you're thinking. Is Starry out of her mind? What's with all the happy? Where's her dark and twisty soul? **

**Well… here it is. I found it after 6 days of happy, snarky bliss. And I'm… sorry. Don't hate me. Bonus day will be happy again…**

**Reminder: Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail, Desna owns the Pradesh Characters, and as always, my beta (GoddessxNyte2) is the greatest out there. (Psst. Don't blame her for this. She tried to stop me.)**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

7: Resonant

Lucy found little comfort in the haunting, resonant sound of the pipe organ as she watched people she didn't even know filter into the cathedral. People she was sure _he _didn't even know. Or hadn't known, she was still struggling to adjust her tenses when she talked about _him._

She hadn't cried. She was sure she wasn't going to. She was so overcome with emotion, desperation, _loss, _that her body had just refused to express it. Maybe because if she started crying, she'd never stop.

Maybe for the first time, the expression "cry me a river" would be literal.

They'd asked her if she wanted to talk about _him._ About his life. About who he is- no… was. But how could she? When all she could see when her cruel, cruel mind brought his face to the forefront of her focus was how pale his face had been when they'd unzipped that crude, impersonal black vinyl _body bag_ and asked her to confirm that it was _him. _Asked her to tell them, the same people that told her he was gone, that it was actually his body sitting their lifeless. Unmoving.

Asked her to tell them that a lifeless, pale form in a stark, colorless world was somehow actually the same inexhaustible, unstoppable force of nature with an unwavering dedication to life that flicked through nearly every one of her good memories.

And she had. Somehow, underneath the pale, cold, unforgiving embrace of death, Lucy recognized _him. _Or what used to be him.

The sounds from the organ grated against her ears, and she wanted to run. To escape. To take off, pick a random direction and just keep going, keep going until somehow, the hole in her very existence started to fill in, or it killed her.

But she didn't do that. She wanted to, as she watched random person after random person stand at the too-pretty altar, over a too-pretty casket, saying too-pretty words that didn't at all describe the person who lay dead within the polished mahogany box at their side. She found that she didn't have the energy to even stand, let alone run.

Lucy didn't have the energy to even stand for quite a while.

So she sat. Still. Unmoving. Just as still and unmoving as the corpse of her family laying in the box ten feet away from her. Until all those horrible people finally left her to her pain. Until every last one of those too-pretty assholes walked out of the too-pretty cathedral and that horrible resonant pipe organ left her to her silence. _Finally._

"...Bright Eyes…"

Lucy couldn't find it in herself to respond.

"We need to go to the graveyard, Lucy," he told her quietly, approaching her unmoving spot in the front row, stepping into her line of sight and breaking her unblinking stare at the box that held the last of her family. At the box that meant she was well and truly alone.

Erik knelt in front of her, and took her face in his calloused hands, "Lucy. Look at me, love. Laxus wouldn't want this for you. He didn't dedicate his life to keeping people safe just for you to fall apart once he lost it."

Lucy's blank stare shifted. Gone was the blank, unseeing gaze of a ghost, and in its place was open, crushing despair.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat, and spoke the first words she'd said in over a week, "M-my br-bro-brother… All I had left…"

It was little more than a choked whisper.

Erik's violet eye softened, and caressed her face with his thumb, "You're not alone, Bright Eyes. I'm here, and I always will be."

With a heartbroken sob, Lucy cried for the first time, throwing herself into the arms of her best friend and the man she'd always known she'd spend the rest of her life with.

She was broken, shattered, and grief-stricken. But she wasn't alone.

She'd be okay, someday. He'd make sure of it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Dear Readers,**

**This is it, the final day of CoLu Week 2019!**

**After the emotional bomb that was yesterday, I did bonus day to cheer you up a bit! **

**I want to again thank Dragon'sHost for being so awesome and hosting this ship week. As you can see on my profile, this is the first ship week I've participated in and I really, really enjoyed it. Sticking with some of the more random prompts was super challenging, but some of the hardest ones (Grain) sparked the best ideas! I am excited to see when the next one starts.**

**CoLu fans… I hear you. If you liked what I've done with this ship week, watch out. I've got a few stories to finish before I do it, but CoLu is definitely on my radar for a multi-chapter. **

**That's all I got. I love you all, thanks for reading my random stories, and please, if you like what you've read, drop me a review. Even if you hate it, let me know so I can improve :)**

**Love ya!**

**Reminders: Desna owns the Pradesh Family. Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail. My beta reads everything I post, and she is wonderful (GoddessxNyte2).**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Bonus Day: Download

He felt like a spy, sneaking around his own damn house, but if Lucy was going to be ridiculous then he was going to take drastic measures.

The first thing he'd done was obtain her password, a task that he assumed would have been difficult. So several nights in a row, when she got into the bathtub he snuck off, opened up her laptop, and tried password after password, until the computer temporarily locked him out.

It was only when Lucy had returned after starting her bath one night to grab a glass of wine and a novel to read that he got caught, and how he then found out that he was an idiot. She'd caught him red-handed, and simply tilted her head to the side as she asked him what he was doing.

"I'm fucking trying to open up this damn computer so I can google a good dessert to make with the ingredients we have in this goddamn house, but it won't let me in."

Not his best excuse, nor his most eloquent line ever, but he was flustered and nervous and doing all he could in that moment to not awaken Scary Lucy.

She, instead of committing murder like he had assumed she would, just laughed, "You need the password, you dumbass! Just type in sugar bear. Capital B, hyphen between the words. And try not to burn the house down, I'll be in the bath for a while."

She ruffled his hair and made for the kitchen, seemingly deciding she needed the entire wine bottle rather than just the glass she'd already poured, and returned to the bathroom with full arms. While he sat there, pondering how he could have been so stupid to forget how trusting she was.

That little task out of the way, his next step was a thumb drive. So he traipsed his way to the store the following day, looking for a device large enough to hold the massive series of files he was trying to get from Lucy's computer. Something easier said than done.

The first drive he looked at was fine, but expensive, and while he didn't know much about electronics, he was pretty sure the item was grossly overpriced. Looking at all the other electronics around him, he noted that they all were grossly overpriced. So he promptly took his business elsewhere.

Three days and twenty-three stores later, Erik _finally _found what he was looking for.

The next step was a call to a little blue haired woman named Levy McGarden, setting up a time to meet that would work for both of them, at a location where they were not likely to be caught conversing. That had been the easiest step by far, but now that it was done, he had to accomplish the most difficult task.

Getting the files.

Hence why he felt like a spy in his own home, sitting in the dark, staring at a computer screen at three in the morning, begging it to hurry.

"Download, download, download…." he whispered to the computer, as if it might encourage it to work faster.

It did not.

"Goddamn it, you stupid fucking bullshit piece of machinery, download…."

The threats hadn't been any more successful.

Finally, _fucking finally_, the little thumb drive that could had finished downloading. He pushed that little button in the corner to safely eject the hardware, and he was home free. He was pocketing the drive when he heard her sleep-deepened voice calling out to him from the hall.

"Erik… is everything okay? What are you doing?"

He nearly jumped out of his skin, but thankfully, held it together.

"I-I was just looking for a good breakfast, yeah. Yeah. I wanted to make you breakfast in the morning, and was looking for a recipe. Can't believe you ruined the surprise, Bright Eyes!" the panic in his voice was plain as day even to him, and damn it if that didn't make him want to gouge his other eye out in humiliation.

"...Sorry, sugar," she apologized with a yawn, turning back to walk down the hall and get in bed, "didn't mean to scare you. G'night."

For the millionth time, he decided he didn't deserve anyone as fucking wonderful and trusting as Lucy Heartfilia. But he was a selfish bastard, so he wasn't going to let her go anytime soon.

* * *

"What… is this?" Lucy held a copy of a book she'd bought at the store earlier that day, staring at her husband of ten years with a question in her eyes.

"That is a book, Tink. You read them all the damn time."

Lucy rolled her eyes at him, "You fucking _know_ what I'm talking about."

Erik looked almost sheepish, sitting on the sofa with his arms crossed over his chest almost defensively, but he didn't say anything.

"Why does this book have my name on it, Erik?"

He sighed, and looked at her, deciding to bite the bullet, "Well. You see, that would be because you wrote it."

She sat down heavily next to him and smacked him on the head with the very book they were discussing.

"I _know _that. Why is it somehow being sold in stores throughout Fiore? When I have no recollection of sending it to a publisher."

He stood up and started pacing, "Because it's _damn good_. Just like all the other ones you've written, and stored away on your computer, and claimed over and over again weren't worth shit. You looked me in the eye and told me that you weren't good enough to publish your work, and that's bullshit, so I fucking did it for you, and if that's some sort of fucking problem for y-"

He was silenced by his wife, when she stood up and hugged him tightly enough that he couldn't pull in the breath necessary for him to continue his rant.

"Thank you, sugar…"

He pulled back and kissed her happy-tear-covered face, cupping her cheek with one hand and tangling the fingers of his other hand through her beautiful blonde hair, "I told you, Bright Eyes, when I put that ring on your finger. I'll always believe in you more than you believe in yourself, and I fucking meant it."

The tears only increased as she threw herself into her husband's strong embrace once more.


End file.
